Savannah Guthrie is known to be as candid as can be on the Today Show, often sharing hilarious selfies and glimpses of her family life with husband Mike Feldman and their children, Vale and Charley.
However, what she doesn't usually discuss with her co-host and viewers is her childhood, until now.
The star had a sentimental conversion on the morning talk show where she opened up about the ups and downs of her upbringing, and honored her mom, Nancy Guthrie.
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Though born in Australia, she grew up in Tucson, Arizona. She detailed to co-host Jenna Bush Hager just how close she is and always has been with her mom, and the sacrifices Nancy went through to take care of her and her sister.
She revealed that her father, Charles, passed away when she was just about to enter senior year of high school, and that she and her sister both felt a duty to take care of their mom.
She explained how all through college she attended the University of Arizona and lived at home, not only because they "didn't have money to afford the dorms," but also, she said that: "My sister and I really felt like we should stick with my mom and not leave her alone."
The touching conversation
They however had to face a big change when the journalist was up for one of her first broadcasting jobs all the way in Butte, Montana.
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"It was really hard for me to leave her," she recalled, but her mom said: "If you can't leave me then I didn't do my job right." She continued to relay the lesson her mom taught her, saying that: "She just gave me permission to go, and she could have held on to me, it wouldn't have taken very much."
Nancy, Savannah, and Jenna on Today in 2019
Despite Savannah's hesitation, her mother insisted: "I'm not going to stand in the way of your dreams."
She took that lesson and offered advice to viewers, maintaining that: "You don't spoon feed your kids, you teach them how to eat for themselves… if we're doing it right they should be self-sufficient, they're not supposed to be needy, and also we're not supposed to be the center of their universe."
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